Pneumatic material handling apparatus



July 28, 1959 R. A. NORBOM PNEUMATIC MATERIAL HANDLING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 20, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR BagnarANorbom BY R ATTORNEYS July 28, 1959 R. A. NORBOM PNEUMATIC MATERIAL HANDLING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet Filed Oct. 20, 1958 INVENTOR R agnar A.Norbom ATTORNEYS United States Patent 9 7 Claims. (Cl. 302-52) This invention relates to railway cars and more particularly railway cars of the type adapted to the bulk transportation of finely divided materials such as grain,

powdered chemicals, minerals and the like, but more particularly for flour or other granulated or pulverized food products. The desirability of bulk transport of materials of this type has been long recognized in the art as bulk transport provides infinitely more sanitary conditions with a minimum of contamination from packaging processes and the like. The other alternative to bulk handling is of course pre-pacliaging in bags or cartons which is wasteful of valuable lading space and is generally unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. Successful bulk transportation of powdered materials and particularly foods is most desirably done in containers which may be pneumatically unloaded in order to avoid insofar as possible any manual handling of the transported material.

It is therefore the primary object of this invention to provide a railway car with apparatus for pneumatically unloading the contents of the lading space.

A further object is to provide a railway car with a lading space, the geometry of which cooperates with the pneumatic unloading apparatus to insure rapid and complete emptying of the lading space.

Other objects will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the attached sheets of drawing in which:

Figure l is a collapsed sectional view through a car showing the general configuration of the lading space together with the pneumatic unloading means;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation, partially in section, of the car shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an end view partially in section, of one of the reciprocating nozzles, and the means for supporting it on the floor of the car;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view collapsed to show the double nozzle carrying carriage together with the means for reciprocating the carriage longitudinally of the car;

Fig. 5 is a side elevation in section of that portion of the apparatus which appears in Fig. 4.

Referring first to Fig. l of the attached drawings, the general configuration of the interior or lading space of the car is shown. The basic configuration of the lading space is defined by opposed end walls and 11 and side walls 12 and 13. It should be noted that the side walls beginning at a point substantially midway of the vertical height of the lading space, are sloped toward each other to assist downward movement .of the lading during the unloading operation. The sloping portion of the side walls terminate at their lower ends in a narrow floor portion 13'. The pneumatic unloading n'ozzlesreciprocate over this narrow floor portion as will appear more fully hereinafter.

At the top of the car, a hatch covered opening 14 is provided in the ceiling for loading the car with finely divided bulk material. The hatch cover in this instance must not be completely airtight, because otherwise pneumatic unloading would be impractical. In order therefore to provide a covered opening which will prevent the ingress of foreign material to the lading space during shipment of the car and yet permit pneumatic unloading, a filter member 15 is provided in the hatch cover 16 and the hatch cover itself is suitably apertured as shown at 17 so that air may be drawn into the lading space during the unloading operation. The air thus drawn in, however, must pass through the filter member 15 before entering the lading space therefore preventing contamination of the'material in the lading space during the unloading operation.

Still referring to Fig. 1 but also to Figs. 2 and 5, it will be seen that a. pair of pneumatic suction outlet conduits l7 and 18 are provided each terminating in a coupling fitting on an opposite side of the car in order that the car may be unloaded from either side. These unloading conduits are in fluid communication with a housing member 19 which depends from the floor of the car. At the point of attachment of the housing to the car floor, there is a central aperture 20 in the floor as shown most clearly in Figs. 2 and 5, and it is through. this aperture that the material within the lading space must pass in order to how outwardly through one of the discharge conduits shown in Fig. 1.

Slidably mounted on the car floor and positioned over the aperture 26 therein is a carriage structure 21 which as shown in Fig. 3 is in the shape substantially of an inverted channel member. This carriage is substantially half the length of the lading space and carries at each end a nozzle member 22 having an opening 23 adjacent the floor. Also at the ends and coinciding with the position of the nozzle members, there is provided a guide-like member 24, the width of which corresponds substantially to the width of the floor. The entire carriage slides on runners 25 preferably formed of nylon or other equivalent plastic material. The weight of the lading material on top of the carriage, the weight of the carriage itself and the suction applied to the discharge conduits then tend to maintain a substantially airtight seal between the carriage and the floor of the car. Additional runners or skids of similar material are also provided on the outboard ends of the guide members as shown most clearly at 26 in Fig. 3.

In order to reciprocate the carriage assembly longitudinally of the lading space, a drum and cable arr-angement is employed, the details of which appear most clearly in Figs. 4 and 5. The drum 30 is received within the depending housing member 19 and only the upper portion of the drum extends a slight distance above the level of the car floor. A single cable 31 is wrapped around the drum and its opposite ends are secured to opposite ends of the carriage. The drum itself includes a cross-over portion 32 for the cable as shown most clearly in Fig. 4. The cable is anchored to the drum at that point. The advantage of a structure of this type is that only a single cable is needed and the number of turns on the drum remain the same at all times due to the fact that when the carriage is moving in one direction and turns are being unwound from the drum, that end of the cable which is attached to the opposite end of the carriage is being wound up on the drum.

Obviously some means must be provided for reversibly driving the drum in alternate directions and the number of revolutions in each direction must be governed by the desired path of travel of the carriage assembly. Conveniently, and as shown in Fig. 1, this may be achieved by means of a reversible electric motor mounted beneath the car floor and connected either directly or through gearing to the drum member. The means for controlling reversals of the motor could be any one of a number of known instrumentalities, e.g. there could be a limit switch positioned to be operated by the carriage itself upon Patented July 28, 1.959

reaching opposite ends of the lading space. An alternate means for achieving the same result would be to have a counter driven by the motor or the drum member or the intermediate gearing in combination with a reversing switch so that following a predetermined number of revolutions, a reversal of the motorwould be efiected.

Due to the peculiar properties of flour, it may be necessary or desirable to include on the carriage member a pair of knife blades or the like, 33, which extend vertically upwardly from the carriage into the lading space. Portions of such blades are shown in Fig. 5. The purpose of this structure is to prevent the formation of a bridge in the lading by reciprocation of the carriage. The knife blades will actually prevent such formation and cut through the packed material causing it to slide down to a point where it can be picked up by the reciprocating nozzle structure.

As indicated in Fig. 1 of the attached drawings the foregoing apparatus has been described with reference to one-half of a proposed railway car. In other words, the apparatus previously described will actually be duplicated in opposite ends of each car.

It is believed that the operation of the apparatus previously described will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Once a car of the type shown herein has been filled with material such as flour or the like, it is transported to any desired destination. The unloading at the destination is accomplished by connecting a' source of vacuum to either of the discharge conduits and depending on which side of the rails the storage bin into which the material is to be discharged is located. Once the connection to a source of vacuum has been effected, the operator has only to start the electric motor in operation in order to cause periodic and continuous reciprocation oi' the nozzle carrying carriage member along the floor of the lading space. Due to the configuration of the lading space and due to the presence of the knife members carried on the upper side of the carriage, the entire lading space may be quickly and effectively emptied. As soon as suction is applied to the outlet conduit, air from the hatch opening channels down through the flour forming a substantially cylindrical passageway to the nozzle. Failure to move the nozzle would substantially. terminate fiour removal from the lading space as the cylindrical channel would tend to remain open and outside air would merely pass therethrough to the nozzle and out of the discharge conduit; As the nozzle is reciprocated, however, the removal of flour continues until the lading space is emptied. It is not necessary to provide a separate source of air under pressure to start the unloading operation, because of the channeling efiect that takes place almost simultaneously with the application of vacuum to the discharge conduit.

The material which is taken in through the discharge nozzles proceeds underneath the carriage until it reaches the opening in the floor where it passes downwardly over the drum and cable assembly to the discharge conduit. The nylon runners or skids carried by the underside of the carriage member are efiective to provide a self-lubri-. eating substantially airtight seal between the carriage and the floor of the car. This seal will be maintained even during reciprocation of the carriage by the weight of the carriage, the weight of the material in the lading space, and the suction applied to the discharge conduits.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that there has been herein shown and disclosed a new and useful apparatus for the handling and bulk transport of finely divided materials. While a preferred embodiment has been shown and described herein, applicant claims the benefit of a full range of equivalents within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A pneumatically unloadable railway car for transporting'finely divided bulk material comprising in combinationz means defining a closed lading space having a floor of substantally less area than the upper portion thereof and a centrally positioned material outlet aperture; an open top closed housing exterior of said lading space and enclosing said outlet aperture; means for connecting said housing to a source of vacuum; an open bottom closed top recipro'cable carriage slidably mounted on said floor and defining therewith a closed fluid conduit opening continuously to said aperture; 2. pair of suction nozzles, one mounted on each end of said carriage and communicating with the interior thereof; and means within said housing operative when energized to reciprocate said carriage longitudinally of said lading space over said outlet aperture.

2. The combination defined by claim 1 in which said last mentioned means comprises a rotatably mounted drum and a cable having opposite ends attached to opposite ends of said carriage and its intermediate portion wrapped around said drum.

3. The combination defined by claim 1 and including a pair of suction conduits, one end of each being connected to and in fluid communication with said housing and the other ends of which terminate in coupling fittings on opposite sides of the car.

4. The combination defined by claim 1 and including a loading hatch at the top of the car, an apertured cover for said hatch and a filter element between the hatch opening and the apertured cover, to filter incoming air during. the unloading operation.

5. The combination defined by claim 1 wherein the length of said carriage is substantially half the length of said lading space whereby each nozzle travels between a point adjacent said outlet and a point adjacent an end wall of said lading space for each cycle of carnage operation.

6. A pneumatically unloadable railway car for transporting finely divided bulk material, comprising in comb1nat1on: opposed side walls, end walls, ceiling and floor defining a closed lading space, at least the lower portion of said side walls sloping inwardly toward each other and said floor having a centrally positioned aperture therethrough defining a material outlet; a depending housing enclosing said aperture and opening to said lading space; means for connecting said housing to a source of vacuum; an open bottom closed top rec'iprocable carriage slidably positioned in substantially airtight engagement on said floor in overlying covering relation with said aperture, said carriage being substantially half the length of said lading space and terminating on each end in a nozzle-like member having a suction opening adjacent said floor and communicating with the underside of said carriage; means within said housing, extending at least partially through said floor opening, connected to said carriage and operative when energized to reciprocate said carriage longitudinally of said container over said floor opening, so that on each cycle, each nozzle travels between a point adjacent said opening and a point adjacent an end wall of said container; whereby when said housing is connected to a source of vacuum, the material in said'lading space is sucked in by said nozzles and pneumatically transported beneath said carriage, through said fioor opening and into said housing.

7. A pneumatically unloadable railway car for transporting finely divided bulk material, comprising in combination: opposed side walls, end walls, ceiling and floor defining a closed lading space, at least the lower portion of said side walls sloping toward each other and said floor having a centrally positioned material outlet aperture; a housing beneath said floor and surrounding said outlet aperture so as to be in fluid communication with said lading space; a pair of suction. conduits, one end of each being connected to said housing so as to be in fluid communication therewith and the opposite ends of each terminating in couplingfittings mounted on opposite sides of the car; an open bottom closed top carriage slidably mounted on said'lading space floor in substantially airtight relation thereto and overlying said material outlet aperture; said carriage being substantially half the length of said lading space; a pair of nozzles, one each carried by opposite ends of said carriage, each nozzle having a suction opening adjacent the floor and in fluid communication with the underside of said carriage; a cable drum rotatably mounted Within said housing; a cable, having opposite ends secured to opposite ends of said carriage, the intermediate portion of said cable being coiled about said drum with its center portion anchored thereto; means mounted on said car externally of said housing including a reversible electric motor coupled to said drum and operative when energized to revolve said drum in alternately opposite directions to reciprocate said carriage longitudinally of said lading 15 89 space; whereby, when one of said suction conduits is connected to a source of vacuum, the material within the lading space is sucked through said nozzles and pneumatically transported beneath said carriage, through said material outlet aperture into said housing and out said conduit to a point of storage.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,440,379 Norbom Apr. 27, 1948 2,464,183 Norbom Mar. 8, 1949 2,523,229 Norbom Sept. 19, 1950 Norbom Mar. 31, 1953 

